Same server for different client sites?
-
Hi everyone - I have a question about whether it's OK for us to host several of our client's websites on the same dedicated web server, without this causing problems in SEO. I know the issues with duplicate content etc., but for background - we provide website services to a particular sector (antiques/auctions). All our clients are distinct, and have written their own copy etc., but because they're all in the same sector, their websites will - largely - talk about the same types of things - so the content is not duplicated, but it's similar in topic, I guess. Does anyone feel it would cause a problem if we were to put several (say about of our client's websites on the same dedicated web server, or would we be better spreading the sites over different shared servers? Come to think about it, if we are spreading those same 8 sites across 4 virtual servers - but all hosted by the same company - presumably Google would know that too?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this!
Nikki
-
Thinking about this further, Wix, for example - would have multiple sites on one server. The same underlying code runs a wix website, but the content is different. This is kind of like the scenario we have, although obviously we're not as big as Wix and we'll have fewer sites on the same server. But that's the scenario - same underlying CRM that clients use to 'build' their site, so in that sense some of the code/framework is the same, but each client adding their own content. There is no way around that the code is the same, but the content is different - so that should be OK - right?!
-
I think that this is usually fine.
My only concern would be that common page. I would put enough work into it to make sure that it does not have same structure, same code, same anything. Just to be safe.
-
Hi Paul - thanks for your thoughts. Good point about each site being hosted in a separate account.
-
Hi EGOL, thanks for your answer - much appreciated. There is absolutely no linking between the sites and the sites do have their own substantive content - although certain pages exist on both sites. e.g. clients have a 'listing' of the items for sale, and so both of the sites would feature this page (and the structure of the page would be the same), but obviously different items would be offered for sale.Do you think that sounds OK?
-
Agree with EGOL - very common procedure.
The one functional consideration you must take into account though is that each site should be hosted in a separate account on the server so malware or hacks from one cannot contaminate the others. That's also best if individual clients will need hosting access to their own sites - otherwise, it can be difficult to keep clients away from the back-end of each others' sites.
Paul
-
If these sites all have unique, substantive content and are not incestuously interlinking, then it is fine to host them on the same dedicated server.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Should I have multiple websites for my different brands or one main website with different tabs/areas?
My client creates apps. As well as the apps they create themselves, they have made some of their own that cover various different topics. Currently they have individual websites for each of these apps, and a website for their app making business. They are asking whether they should just have one website - their app building site, which also includes information about the two apps they've built themselves. My feeling is it's better to keep them separate. The app building site is trying to appeal to a B2B audience and gain business to build new apps. AppA is trying to help carehomes and carers to streamline their business, and AppB is trying to help workplace and employee welfare. Combining them all will mean lots of mixed messaging/keywords even if we have dedicated areas on the site. I also think it will limit how much content we can create on each without being completely overwhelming for the user. If we keep them all separate then we can have a very clear user journey. I would of course recommend having blog posts or some sort of landing page to link to AppA and AppB's websites. Thoughts? Thank you!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | WhitewallGlasgow0 -
Servers matter for different domains for same keywords?
We have 3 domains in the same industry, but unique content on each site. The whois info is private, but the domains are all under the same owner registrant info. In terms of rankings, does it matter if we move them all into the same RackSpace cloud account? Will Google know the relationship somehow and if they do, will they care?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TheDude0 -
Technical Site Questions
When i do a google cache of our site, i see 2 menus, our developers say that's because the 2nd is for the mobile menu - is that correct, as when i look up other sites that have mobile rendering they only have one menu visible. Plus GWT's has the number of internal links per page at least x2 what they should have - are they connected? Secondly when i do a spider test through http://tools.seobook.com/general/spider-test/ it shows all "behind the scenes text" eg font names, portals, sliders, margins - "font size px" is shown as 17 times and a density of 2.15% - surely this isnt correct as google will be thinking that these are my keywords !? My site is www.over50choices.co.uk Thanks Ash
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AshShep10 -
Are Their Any SEO Dangers When Cleaning Up a Site
I'm doing some housekeeping on my website. Removing old blogs that are out of date (2008) or things have moved on. The blogs I'm removing are being 301'd to relevant newer blogs. Can this type of clean up cause any problems that affect the optimisation of a site? Looking forward to hearing your views. Christina
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ChristinaRadisic0 -
Should I let Google crawl my production server if the site is still under development?
I am building out a brand new site. It's built on Wordpress so I've been tinkering with the themes and plug-ins on the production server. To my surprise, less than a week after installing Wordpress, I have pages in the index. I've seen advice in this forum about blocking search bots from dev servers to prevent duplicate content, but this is my production server so it seems like a bad idea. Any advice on the best way to proceed? Block or no block? Or something else? (I know how to block, so I'm not looking for instructions). We're around 3 months from officially launching (possibly less). We'll start to have real content on the site some time in June, even though we aren't planning to launch. We should have a development environment ready in the next couple of weeks. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DoItHappy0 -
URL language on Global Sites
Has anyone looked into a page not ranking as well because the URL is in English when the subdomain is geared for a different country and different language? I can defiantly see this taking away from the user experience, but didn't know if there was any concrete evidence or case studies that would show if it is a big deal or not for rankability? I know this is a backwards question to begin with because the priority over rankability is always UX, but there may not be a way to fix it unless I can prove it is a big deal.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Ryan_Henry0 -
Need your thoughts on my site
Hi, This is my site: http://hemorrhoidssuccess.com/ I have got some decent natural links with a mix of different anchor texts. My main keyword is "Hemorrhoids Treatment", And i got very less exact match anchor texts. Now i was able to rank for "Top Hemorrhoid Treatment" on #2 Page, but i was not in the index for the my main keyword "Hemorrhoids Treatment". Can you review my site and let me know, what i am missing? Do i need to get more links? If so with what anchor texts? Will be waiting for your replies.. Thanks in Advance
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Vegitss
Dhee0 -
Do follow or no follow on wordpress site?
I have read many different opinions on what links to make do follow on a wordpress website versus which ones to leave as no follow. (internal and external) There does not seem to be any consensus among the inputs to date. Any perspectives on this would be appreciated. thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | casper4340